Poverty Law: Threat to the Ombudsmen

The young lawyers who run the OEO Legal
Services Program see themselves as ombudsmen for the poor. As such,
they do more than represent individual indigents in minor court
actions. They also sue state and local governments on behalf of welfare
recipients, migrant workers and other large groups of poor people. The
growing success of such broad test cases may be measured by the
opposition that has surfaced in the U.S. Senate.

"I object to the political involvement of a federally funded
organization," said Senator George Murphy of California. In the same...